Umeå universitets logga

La construction de la compétence collective à la faveur des leviers traditionnels de GRH et plus largement des leviers institués est aujourd’hui admise dans la littérature. Dans ce papier, nous concentrons notre attention sur la manière dont la hiérarchie mobilise ces leviers. Dans la lignée des travaux les plus récents qui s’intéressent aux facteurs qui transforment, dissolvent ou limitent la compétence collective, nous étudions le levier de composition d’équipe et les tensions de rôle qu’elles génèrent. Nous examinons le cas du PGHM de Chamonix, organisation militaire de secours en montagne, pour comprendre quels effets, positifs et négatifs, les tensions de rôle induites par la hiérarchie produisent sur le développement de la compétence collective. Nos résultats en clair-obscur, tendent à nuancer l’effet néfaste des tensions de rôle, permettent d’identifier de nouveaux facteurs d’émergence de la compétence collective et proposent une articulation entre ambiguïté et conflit de rôle.

Risky, emergency or disruptive contexts are all qualifiers used for so-called "extreme" contexts that are usually characterized by uncertainty, time pressure and the presence of risks and / or dangers. Many authors and practitioners believe that they have now become the new normal for many organizations. The first studies that inspired this research consider that accidents are inevitable while others, such as those involving high reliability organizations (military aircraft carriers, professional firefighters) show that some organizations sustain their operation without major accidents, despite working in these contexts. They heavily rely on teamwork: the so-called "extreme action" teams. They are made up of a small number of people with heterogeneous expertise and being immersed in risky environments to achieve the objectives assigned to them. One of the major challenges for such teams is to be able to achieve their goals while preserving their integrity, which raises the question of their ability to work together. To answer it, we drew on the field of human resources, focusing on collective competence. In fact, this theme has undergone constant development, mainly since the mid-2000s. French and English research in this area are quite complementary without necessarily engaging in dialogue with each other. The first are rather focused on the components and conditions for the emergence of collective competence, while the second identifies the performance levers of teamwork. These two fields of research highlight the role played by coordination, implicit and explicit, between actors, communication practices as well as certain traditional levers of human resources management (training, recruitment, remuneration and evaluation) in the construction of this ability to act collectively. They allow the combination of individual expertise necessary for the achievement of the mission to be carried out. They also support progress toward the goal by enabling necessary adaptations related to changes in the mission or in the natural environment. Drawing on these literatures and relying on a single case, our thesis examines the collective competence necessary for the success and reliability of extreme action teams. This research was carried out through the study of an elite mountain rescue unit, the Peloton de Gendarmerie de Haute Montagne (PGHM) in Chamonix. These teams are extreme action teams whose mission is to rescue hikers and mountaineers in the hostile mountain environment. The interviews and observations that we conducted with the PGHM as well as with the Forces Aériennes de Gendarmerie allowed us to understand how the collective competence of these action teams is built and maintained, ensuring both the safety of the members of the the team and the success of mountain rescue operations.

The role of first responders during extreme crisis events consists of improvising under time pressure to retain control of the unfolding situation and mitigate harmful effects to help organizations restore their 'normal' functioning. This pervasive view of crises as cosmologic events obscures their transformational dimension and their long-term positive outcomes. In this article, we explore how actors respond to time pressure and vital stakes while identifying and actualizing a novel trajectory. They improvise to overcome limitations, create, and enact a desirable future to seize an opportunity that arises due to unexpected surprises. We argue that the actualization of novel trajectories relies on a combination of the enactment of a duplicate temporality that combines the chronological time-pressure of the unfolding event and kairotic time, in which critical decisions and actions actualize the desired future. Our contributions to the crisis management literature are twofold. First, we conceptualize chronological and kairotic improvisation practices to acknowledge that crisis response is not only about acting quickly but also about doing the right thing at the right time. Second, we shed light on crises as 'cosmologic' events, showing that they can be a point of origin for long-term positive outcomes. Finally, we advocate for a deeper and fine-grained consideration of time and temporality to advance crisis management studies.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon how encountering trauma unexpectedly in the field informs the doing of fieldwork.

Design/methodology/approach: A reflexive essay approach was adopted to explore traumatic incidents in extreme contexts. Written vignettes, interviews, field notes and information conversations served as the bases for reflections.

Findings: Four themes arose from the reflections (Bracketing, Institutional Pressure, Impact on Research and Unresolvedness). It was suggested that researchers engaged in extreme context research, and management and organization studies scholars engaged in dangerous fieldwork more broadly, are under institutional pressure to continue work that may put themselves in harm's way. Traumatic experiences also shape and reflect the researcher's identity, which informs choices about current and future research projects.

Research limitations/implications: It was suggested that scholars will benefit from reading the accounts of others to reduce the burden of isolation that can accompany traumatic field experiences.

Originality/value: Exploring single traumatic events enabled in engaging with trauma encountered unexpectedly and directly in the field. The reflections reveal the effects of psychological and physical trauma on researchers, and highlight how trauma impacts the research process.